4.3 Years – 5.5 Years
Duck Pond
Pre-K Classroom
A weekly Summary
Our preschool curriculum adheres to a weekly theme along with a letter of the week. The weekly theme and letter of the week are taught kinesthetically, auditory, and visually. We believe that all children have their own learning styles that touch upon these skills. The classrooms provide many hands on opportunities for your child to learn. They are set up in content areas to provide the following goals. All areas as described below encourage and enhance your child‘s learning editorially, auditory, visually and kinesthetically. We also encourage children to have fun with all activities.
What we do
Building Area
Children use imagination to create, building with different objects (legos, wooden blocks, bristle blocks, train tracks, etc.), develop social skills through sharing and cooperating with others, begin to learn cause / effect and problem solving, develop spatial relationships and recognize symmetry, compare and classify size, weight, thickness, width and length of blocks, develop eye hand coordination by balancing blocks, and respect others by admiring their work.
Group Time
Children participate in songs and finger plays, express feelings, use language skills to engage in group discussions, listen to stories and learn to enjoy literature, learn days of the week and months of the year, understand the concept of yesterday, today and tomorrow, share items from home during show and tell, enhance self esteem, increase verbal interaction.
Art Area
Children express creativity, make their own decisions, use their imagination, feel proud of work that they have done. This increases fine motor skills (through the use of scissors, crayons, markers etc.). Children learn to recycle by using different objects for art (egg carton, paper tubes etc.), manipulate and create sculptures with clays and dough.
Discovery Table
Children stimulate senses of touch through different textures (popcorn, dirt, water, mud, sand, cornmeal, rice, slime, etc.), utilize funnels, measuring cups and sifters to increase hand eye co ordination, discover objects that sink and float, and strengthen hand muscles by digging, squeezing holding and pouring.
Math & Manipulative area
Children increase fine motor skills (stringing beads or buttons, lacing pictures, etc.), develop an understanding of one to one correspondence (placing pegs in a peg board), sort and categorize items according to shape, color and size, match pictures in memory games, recognize and copy pattern blocks, and count objects.
Science Area
Children observe and care for living creatures (fish, frogs, insects, plants etc.), develop basic senses, explore, examine, classify, compare and contrast natural items (shells, rocks, leaves beans etc.), and experiment with objects on their own (magnifying glasses, spectrums, magnets etc.).
Dramatic Play
Children just love this area!. They use imagination creatively, role play with use of costumes and props, increase self help skills by dressing themselves into costumes, and engage in social conversation with class mates.
Library Area
Children quiet down and engage in books, use imagination to create stories according to pictures, learn to handle books with care, and use props as a form of expression with books
Language Area
Children become familiar with letters, numbers, shapes, practice copying name from a personal nametag, begin the first stages of writing with pencil, writing name, letters, and numbers, and develop language skills through the use of puppets, storyboards, flannel boards etc.
Rest Period
We are required to offer each child a rest period each day. Rest period begins at about 12:30 pm and lasts a minimum of 45 minutes. Each child is given a personal mat to rest on labeled with his/her name.
Gross Motor Area
Children release energy, strengthen gross motor muscles, coordinate movement of their body (trampoline, hula hoops, ball catch, bean bag toss, etc.)
Music Movement
This incorporated into whole group activities. This may consist of dancing, singing and playing musical instruments.
What we ask of you
- We ask that each child bring in items for rest time including a travel size pillow, blanket, and folded sheet, all labeled with the child's name and placed in a plastic bag. Sleeping items will be sent home on Fridays to be washed and returned on your child's next school day.
- We ask all students to provide necessary clothing. Weather appropriate change of clothes, consists of a shirt, underwear and pants. If soiled, clothes will be placed in a bag labeled soil/wet and put into your child's cubby. We ask that you please replace the clothing the next day your child returns to the center in case it is needed again.
Season Dependant Clothing
Winter: Snow pants, gloves, boots and hat
Summer: Bathing suit, towel, water shoes and sunscreen
Spring and Fall: Jacket or sweater